Kaiser Leopold III
Summary Leopold Samsonling III is the 55th and reigning Kaiser of the Kingdom of the Samsonites. He is the youngest person ever crowned Kaiser, having inherited the throne at the age of 16 in 2004, making him two years younger than Samson XIII had been when he took the throne in 1714. Leopold has been an unorthodox Kaiser and very frequently has challenged established preconceptions about the title and its responsibilities. He is much more concerned with the day-to-day lives of his citizens than geopolitics and is a patron of the arts. He is the first Kaiser to pursue a non-court education and graduated from the Pfilstein Arts Institute in 2010 with a degree in literature. Early Life Leopold was born in 1988 after a long period of concern over the Royal Succession. Kaiser Wilhelm III and Queen Gertrude had given birth to three daughters prior to Leopold's birth, and the arrival of a Son consequently resulted in great celebration across the country and globally among Unitarian populations. Leopold was kept sheltered from the media throughout his childhood, spending much of his life confined to the Northern Quarter of Muddah, only leaving the city when the Royal Family went on holiday. When Leopold first began his schooling, Wilhelm and Gertrude decided that they ought to consider Leopold's interests, and opted to foster his creative habits by placing him in an arts curriculum. When word eventually broke out about this, it caused much concern among Samsonia's conservative populace, who still viewed the Kaiser as a necessary component of the nation's government despite the fact that the Kaiser only existed as a voluntary diplomatic position. Ascension (2004) Leopold had only just entered adolescence when his father died of a heart attack. Leopold was still in the middle of his studies, and was very apprehensive to take the role of Kaiser. With much convincing from his mother, Leopold finally conducted his coronation two weeks later. Leopold refused to end his studies, however, and returned to the Pfilstein Arts Institute shortly after. Diplomatic Withdrawal (2004-2010) With Leopold pursuing his education, his eldest sister Madeline was chosen to take his place temporarily as the chief diplomat of the country. During this time, the Kingdom began expanding its involvement in the World Congress Peacekeeping Corps and began assisting with humanitarian operations in Danelia. Madeline also began improving relations with the New Broeklands, becoming a close acquaintance of New Broeklander president Sophie Wijnberger. Leopold, in this time, began slowly re-integrating himself into the position of Kaiser as he reached the end of his education. In 2010, after graduating from the Pfilstein Arts Institute, Leopold officially congratulated his sister for her service and resumed the position of chief Diplomat of the nation. Congressional Advocacy Leopold is a stark supporter of the World Congress and detests the use of military force as a means to achieve political goals. Throughout his reign, he has repeatedly denounced the various armed conflicts in Cyralia and Danelia. In 2012, he ratified the Alfheim Non-Intervention Treaty in Samsonia, announcing that the nation would never interfere in foreign affairs which didn't threaten the security of Samsonia itself. This created a major stir in the Volksversammlung, who believed that the nation reserved the right to act without restriction. Two years later, this decision would cause a stir again as the issue of the Ultranationalist Crisis brought up concerns about whether or not an intervention would now be permissible under the terms of the ANI Treaty. Ultranationalist Crisis (2014-present) In 2014, SIRI, alongside the Esloran Navy, intercepted a freighter carrying chemical weapons off the coast of the Almohads, which eventually unveiled the existence of a complex international arms trade network. This network was linked to several High-Risk regions, some of which were already the targets of WCPC interventions. Further inspections revealed that the leaders of several separatist and independence movements were involved in this trade, including the previously-benign People's Republic of Kayula, which had taken over the Lycurgan island in 2010. This discovery immediately prompted several Security Council Meetings, which began re-evaluating WCPC deployments and began rearranging the list of priority zones. Muddah Stock Exchange Bombing (2014) Shortly after these meetings began, members of the Buitenlander Bevrijdingsfront bombed the Muddah Stock Exchange, causing the complex to collapse. The resulting damage caused thousands of deaths and even more injuries. Leopold III, having arrived in the country the previous evening, drove to the scene after having been woken up by the blast. Unescorted, he began assisting first-responders with the search-and-rescue effort, saving two men who had been trapped under the rubble before being escorted away from the site by SAS-SOG Operators and told to return to the Kaiserplatz. Following the attack on the Stock Exchange, Leopold made a televised speech at an emergency Security Council meeting, where he denounced the forces responsible for the attack, calling them "Ultranationalists" and likening them to the Samsonite Nationalist Party which had also turned to violent actions to achieve their political ambitions. In this speech, he announced that SIRI would make locating the bombers their number-one priority and that ending the Ultranationalist menace would be the nation's number-one priority. Private Contractors Ward Leopold's actions at the bombing site and the subsequent speech at the World Congress made national headlines and broke the long period of negative media attention he'd been receiving since first taking the throne. In the years following the Stock Exchange Bombing, Leopold began personally overseeing SIRI and SAS-SOG operations to ensure they were operating at peak efficiency. During this time, he also began drafting plans for a subdepartment of the World Congress Peacekeeping Corps which could ease the burden the Peacekeeping Corps was facing by intervening in so many theatres. This branch intended to make use of Private Contractors to perform tasks in crisis zones which were not demanding of a disciplined force with oversight. In particular, Leopold intended to use these private contractors to assist in the location of several high-ranking individuals within the various Ultranationalist organisations. This would eventually become the World Congress Private Contractors Ward, which would employ Private Contractors throughout the conflict to assist in the location and capture of several low-ranking individuals in the "Deck of 52" developed by the Security Council in 2015. As of 2019, The People's Republic of Kayula has been completely dissolved and it's highest-ranking members, including its leader Luciano di'Kayolo, captured. Several individuals in the Buitenlander Bevrijdingsfront have also been captured. Samso-Slavic Relations Leopold began improving relations with the Slavic Union early into his reign, and eventually became good friends with Premier Dagor the Elder. This initially caused a media stir, as many of the Samsonites still held anti-Slavic sentiments from the Cold War, as a result of Wilhelm III's anti-communist policies. However, after the two nations began openly encouraging economic co-operation in 2013, these concerns quickly dissolved. Leopold also re-instated the foreign exchange program dissolved by his father and made a personal investment in several Arts institutes across Translavia.